Stu Cowan: 'NHL’s new slogan Concussions “R” Us'

MONTREAL - Here’s a question I have for hockey fans: If you were watching the NHL playoffs on TV Wednesday night, did you stick with the Pittsburgh-Philadelphia game – with the Penguins leading 10-3 in the third period of a blowout – or did you switch the channel to watch the Ottawa-New York Rangers game, which was tied 2-2 and headed to overtime?

If you answered Pittsburgh-Philadelphia, then you might have also answered the question of why the NHL has seemed so reluctant to crack down on the escalating violence during the postseason. The only reason to stick with the Penguins-Flyers game was to see if they would drop the gloves again or if in the NHL’s world of Rock’em Sock’em Robots someone else would get his block knocked off.

The NHL’s new slogan could be Concussions “R” Us.

Whether we like it or not, violence sells. And while NHL officials won’t admit it, they must also know it’s true. Either that, or Gary Bettman, Brendan Shanahan, the referees and everyone else running the NHL is incompetent.

What do you think?

NBC announced this week that more than 18.4 million U.S. viewers had watched the playoffs through Tuesday – including last Sunday’s Pittsburgh-Philadelphia punch-up – up nearly 5 million from the same period last year.

Here’s what Don Cherry had to say this week on Hockey Night in Canada about people who have been turned off by the postseason violence:

“The fans love it, who pay the money,” Cherry roared on Coach’s Corner. “The players don’t seem to mind it, the coaches don’t seem to mind it, the players like it. So who is it who doesn’t like the fights and the banging around? It’s the reporters who get in free.

“This is war. This has been going on forever.”

Yes it has.

Remember Philadelphia’s Broad Street Bullies of the 1970s? How about the Good Friday Massacre between the Canadiens and Quebec Nordiques in the 1984 playoffs? After Emile (Butch) Bouchard’s death last weekend, The Gazette’s Red Fisher recalled a game during the 1950s in New York when the Canadiens’ Bernie Geoffrion clubbed the Rangers’ Ron Murphy on the head with his stick. Referee Red Storey asked Bouchard, the Canadiens’ captain, what Geoffrion was thinking?

“See those empty seats up there?” Bouchard said, pointing to the top section at Madison Square Garden. “I promise you … the next time we’re back here they’ll be filled.”

If anything, today’s society has even more of an appetite for violence than in the past.

Have you seen the blockbuster movie The Hunger Games, featuring teenagers selected by lottery to compete in a televised battle to the death until only one is left? Did you read this week about the student at Westwood Senior High School in Hudson who had his cheekbone broken in two places and his eye socket shattered in a schoolyard beating by a classmate while about 50 other students looked on, some of them videotaping it and putting it on YouTube? Did you know it costs $49.99 to watch Saturday night’s Ultimate Fighting Championship card on pay-per-view?

National Football League commissioner Roger Goodell has been praised for his crackdown on headshots and the way he handled the New Orleans Saints bounty situation. But was Goodell really concerned with limiting violence in the league or was he more worried about the lawsuits launched by 1,200 former players claiming the league misled them in the past about the risks of head injuries and was negligent about their treatment?

The Associated Press reported that former all-pro defensive tackle Alex Karras, who later became a successful actor, is now 76 and suffering from dementia, while former Super Bowl-winning quarterback Jim McMahon, now 52, needs his girlfriend to program the GPS for their house in case he gets lost while driving.

The way things are going, I think there could be a lot of Alex Karrases and Jim McMahons in the NHL’s future. That alone should make the NHL crack down on the violence instead of simply slapping Nashville’s Shea Weber on the wrist with a $2,500 fine for being “reckless” when he punched and then shoved Detroit’s Henrik Zetterberg headfirst into the glass in Game 1 of their series, opening the door for the rest of the playoff shenanigans. The only other thing that might get the NHL’s attention is if people stop watching.

In the meantime, here’s another message from Cherry.

“All I’m saying is, quit whining that this stuff hasn’t been going on and it’s not hockey,” he said on Coach’s Corner. “It’s hockey the way it’s played. If you don’t like it, take up tennis. I can see these guys playing tennis, these reporters, playing tennis ‘oh, sweet love’ in their little white shorts.”

If you look at the On the Tube listings in Saturday’s sports section, you’ll notice there is plenty of NHL playoff action this weekend, along with the UFC and tennis.

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